Precious metals this week have not done all that much moving, mostly because there hasn’t been too much economic data to speak of. We have had a lot of focus geared towards the ongoing Greek debt negotiations, but these talks have failed to really have all that much of an impact on the market…at least for now.

As we look ahead to next week, the investing world will be paying close attention to the latest meeting of the US Federal Reserve. With interest rate hikes a source of constant debate, it will be interesting what the Fed has to say next week.

Light Week of Economic Data

For the most part, this week was devoid of most markets-moving economic data. There simply weren’t too many reports to speak of and, as such, the market did not have all that much to react to. From the US, however, an existing home sales report from the month of March showed that the housing market in the US is continuing to improve. With a lower unemployment rate, more and more people are feeling financially secure enough to make home purchases. This news fell in the camp of those who believe interest rates will be hiked sooner rather than later.

In Europe, March’s composite PMI report came back far weaker than originally anticipated. Still sitting in a fine position overall, the PMI data did catch some investors off guard. This is especially so because we have seen nothing but upbeat report after upbeat report from the European Union in recent weeks.

In Brussels, talks between Greek officials and members of the International Monetary Fund continued this week, though very little progress has been made. The fact of the matter is that Greece is facing a cash crunch that may mean that they are unable to honor previously agreed upon debt repayments. If Greece does, in fact, default on loan payments, they will likely be forced out of the European Union, and this is the reason so many people are paying such close attention to the ongoing debt talks. As we move into next week, I imagine that we will continue to see much of the same from Greece and that the global marketplace will pay just a bit more attention to the situation.

FOMC Meeting Eyed

Though this week was mostly devoid of economic happenings, the same cannot be said for next week. Already, investors are speculating about what they think the outcome of next week’s FOMC meeting will be. As is typically the case, I am of the opinion that the Fed will, in all likelihood, remain as vague as ever regarding interest rate hikes.

With that being said, however, many members of the Fed have been making speeches, alluding that interest rates should be hiked sometime in the near future. Just this week, a member of the Boston Federal Reserve came out as saying that he thinks rate hikes will happen soon so long as the US Dollar continue to improve alongside global economic growth. Of course, more factors than those will play into the decision to hike interest rates.

For precious metals, the prospect of raised interest rates in the United States is one that does not help spot values at all. This is so because higher interest rates will mean that investors will be more interested in interest-bearing assets as opposed to safe-haven assets like gold and silver. As the next few weeks and months play out, it will be truly interesting to see what developments take place along the raised interest rates front.

Precious metals are recovering on Friday after spending the three previous days suffering some decent losses. On the whole, this week has been fairly quiet and mostly devoid of any impactful economic data. While that is so, the US Dollar has spent most of the week making gains, and this is not helping gold and silver in the slightest.

As it stands, weekly losses are looking inevitable as metals conceded much of the value gained last week. Currently, the near-term technical advantage gained by metals a week or so ago has evaporated as investors become more bullish on US equities and the US Dollar. Though this week was a fairly quiet one as far as economic data is concerned, the same cannot be said for next week as investors are expecting a good bit of markets-moving economic data to be unveiled.

FOMC Minutes Cause a Stir

Despite there being almost no markets-moving economic data to speak of this week, the market was dealt the minutes from last month’s FOMC meeting on Wednesday. The minutes, which really weren’t expected to be all that important, painted the picture of a Federal Reserve that is rigidly split with regard to when they want rate hikes to ensue.

On one hand, there are members of the Fed who would like to see rate hikes take place this summer, but others still do not think it is appropriate to raise rates until some time much further down the road. Because of these somewhat confusing minutes, the market’s overall outlook on interest rate hikes took a bit of a turn.

You see, after last Friday’s much worse-than-expected employment report from the United States during March, the entire global marketplace became pretty well convinced that rate hikes would not happen until sometime next year. Because of the minutes, and the confusion they offered, however, many investors who last week thought rate hikes weren’t coming until 2016 are now under the impression that they still might happen this summer. It will be interesting to see if the upcoming FOMC meeting offers any further clues into when interest rate hike might take place.

Big Week Ahead

Despite the fact that this week was as slow as they come, the same cannot be said about the upcoming week. Starting on Monday and carrying through the whole 5-day trading session, investors can expect to see a good amount of economic data from the US, Europe, and other parts of the world.

From the US, there is an all-important retail sales report from March that is due out sometime during the midweek. As it stands, investors and market experts alike are anticipating that this piece of data will show quite upbeat retail sales figures from the United States.

Also expected from the United States next week is a report on new housing starts in March. This report is also expected to be generally upbeat and show an improving housing market in the US.

With all of this data on the slate, it is clear to see that next week will be a bit more active than this week was. For precious metals, there is no saying what all this means. If US economic data is upbeat and bests the expectations of the market, I would not be surprised to see the spot value of precious metals continue to tick downward. On the other hand, overly poor economic reports will likely come to the aid of gold and silver as safe-haven assets. For now, however, the outlook on metals is none too favorable, despite today’s decent gains.

Gold and silver spot values are conceding some value as of the writing of this post early Friday morning. This whole week, and much of last week, saw precious metals add value consistently thanks to a number of different factors, but most notably due to a faltering US Dollar. After rallying through the early parts of March, the last few weeks have seen the greenback concede value on a fairly consistent basis. Still, the Dollar is in good standing and is poised to make even more gains against many of its rivals, including the Euro.

On the whole, these last 4 and a half days have been mostly quiet from an economic data standpoint. Of course, with the weekly jobless claims report due out on Thursday, yesterday offered a bit of an exception to the quiet nature of this week. According to the Labor Department’s report, jobless claims in the US came back at just over 280,000, down from a reading of more than 290,000 claims a week ago. This did not do precious metals any favors, but also didn’t do much in the way of stealing momentum. All in all, the labor situation in the US is still developing and is hard to gauge at this particular juncture. As we head further into this year, however, each and every employment report from the US will be increasingly heavily weighted by investors who want to know when interest rates will be raised and how much they will be raised by.

Fighting In Yemen Intensifies

For the better part of the past few years, there has been a civil war raging between the Yemeni government and a few different rebel groups. In recent weeks, the fighting has really intensified, so much so that Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that they would be carrying out airstrikes against rebel forces.

Though Saudi Arabia involving itself in this regional conflict is seen by many as a good thing, the fact of the matter is that the Saudis might be making the Middle East even more unstable. The reason I say this is due to the fact that the rebel positions being struck by the Saudi air force are operated by the same rebels that are currently receiving support from Iran. With the two biggest Middle Eastern powers indirectly fighting one another, it is fairly easy to see why investors have grown concerned with what is going on in Yemen. So far, Saudi involvement in Yemen has not received much of a response from Iran, though that can change at any time. Because of this, the investing world will undoubtedly be keeping a close eye on this region as the civil war in Yemen and all associated developments creep back into the headlines.

GDP Forecast Upgraded

Despite this week not playing host to too much in the way of economic data, today offered a bit of an exception in the form of 4th quarter GDP estimates on the part of the US Commerce Department. Compared to earlier forecasts for 4th quarter growth to be somewhere in the 2.2% range, the newly revised forecasts sees the Commerce Department expecting fourth quarter growth to be around 2.5%.

For many, the lackluster performance on the part of the US economy so far this year makes it hard to believe that this year will see overly upbeat GDP growth. Still, it is quite early and there is no way of knowing how the economy will perform over the next 9 months or so. For now, however, the market is gearing up for the plethora of month-end and quarter-end economic data that will be made public next week and into the following week.

For yet another day this week, precious metals spot values are trading down, even if by only marginal amounts. On the whole, the past 5 trading days have been quite adversarial to precious metals as spot values were chipped away with each passing day. There was a good bit of economic data made public throughout the week, but few pieces of data were more closely-watched than today’s US Labor Department non-farm payrolls report.

In addition to economic data from the United States, this week has also played host to a few surprise moves made by global central banks. In all reality, the moves made this week should not come as much of a surprise at all considering the battles currently taking place between global central banks. For the USD Index, however, all these central bank battles are working in the greenback’s favor.

USD Index Holds Near 12-Month High for Two Straight Days

One of the week’s big news stories came on Wednesday and Thursday when, over the course of two days, the USD Index hit two consecutive 11.5 month highs. Rallying against a number of rival currencies, the USD is looking increasingly appetizing to currency investors. As the Dollar outperforms most other global currencies, it is clear to see that the greenback is also taking its toll on spot values.

Having lost momentum each and every day this week, gold and silver spot values are sporting weak technical posture and are, quite honestly, looking like they will sink even lower before all is said and done. Crude oil isn’t doing metals any favors either, as the raw commodity has more or less stagnated around the $50/barrel mark. The fact that crude oil is not really moving is acting and has acted as a weight dragging down all raw commodities. If this continues, you can bet that precious metals’ spot values will continue to suffer.

Highly Anticipated Employment Data from the US

There has been a lot of economic data made public this week, but few are being more highly touted than today’s release of the latest non-farm payrolls report for the month of February in the United States. Employment data for the US is always deemed to be important, but after the first few months’ worth of employment data for 2015 fell short of expectations, investors are more keenly paying attention to February’s figures.

Prior to the release of the data, most investors had expected that non-farm payrolls rose by 240,000 during the month of February. This somewhat conservative estimate was expected to be beaten handily, and that would not bode well at all for gold and silver.

China’s Central Bank Switches Up Monetary Policy

China, the world’s second-largest economy, has been the center of a lot of attention in recent months simply because their impressive economy cannot seem to get on track. In an effort to spur economic activity and growth, the Chinese Central Bank announced last weekend that they would be slashing interest and deposit rates by .25% apiece.

What’s more, the same central bank announced later in the week that they would also be loosening the reins on loans to businesses in hopes that businesses will borrow more and subsequently spend more. Finally, on top of all of this, China’s Prime Minister was quoted on Thursday as saying that the overall expectations for GDP growth during 2015 has been reduced from 7.5% to a flat 7%. Though the reduction was disheartening and a bit bearish for precious metals, it is important to keep in mind that the amount of growth expected by China is much greater than that expected by most other global economies. For instance, any European country would be ecstatic to see 7% GDP growth, but as we all know, that will likely not be a reality for anyone in Europe anytime soon.

Precious metals are posting solid gains on this, the final trading day of the week, but are still looking at some weekly losses. For gold, this will be yet another week where a 5-day trading session saw the metal’s spot value finish worse off than where it started. Silver, on the other hand, was able to squeak out a marginal weekly gain thanks to a nice rally today.

On the whole, the week we have just witnessed was quite calm and devoid of much economic data. Though a few geopolitical developments caught the attention of the marketplace, there were very few outright economic reports to talk about. The one exception to that rule being two reports that were made public on Thursday in the United States. Looking ahead to next week, I think that things will resemble the week that has just passed thanks to an overall lack of economic data and few developments outside of Europe.

Ukraine Ceasefire Talks Emit Results

For the first time in months, the fighting across Ukraine’s Eastern half will be brought to a halt thanks to a ceasefire agreement that was reached in Belarus on Thursday. The agreement, which officially goes into effect on Sunday, will bring relative peace to a region that has been ravaged by war over the past year or more. With regard to global economic markets, the news of the ceasefire agreement sent equity markets shooting upward. Over the course of the past few days, US and European stock indexes have shot to multi-year highs. This action has limited the upward momentum of precious metals that was derived from a weaker Dollar over the past few days. It will be interesting to see if global equity markets can continue this rally as we head into a new weeks.

Another note from the talks in Belarus, it was reported that Angela Merkel, German chancellor, praised Russian president Vladimir Putin for his efforts in the talks. Putin is known to be obstinate when it comes to the fight in Ukraine, so it was particularly refreshing to hear that he is, at least for now, cooperating with those that want peace.

US Economic Data Is A Miss

On the whole, both the weekly jobless claims report and retail sales report released on Thursday were disappointing. Not only have weekly jobless claims once again eclipsed the 300,000 mark, retail sales over the course of December to January fell by almost a whole percentage point. This follows a November to December reading on retail sales that also saw a decline of nearly 1%.

The year has gotten off to a poor start for US economic data, but that does not mean things can change. The overall outlook on economic growth in the US is upbeat for 2015, so it will be interesting to see when things begin to turn around.

Precious metals finished the week having lost some decent value, mostly thanks to some stronger employment data from the United States. On the whole, this week has been quiet, but the last few days have played host to some economic data that has caught the attention of investors. Additionally, the price action of crude oil has caught the attention of the marketplace as it has been on the rise recently.

In news from Europe, it was reported today that the presidents of Germany and France will be meeting with Vladimir Putin in order to discuss the ongoing violence in Ukraine. In recent weeks, the fighting in Eastern Europe has intensified as a result of some ceasefire agreements falling through. As we move forward, increased attention will be placed on the fighting happening in Ukraine.

US Employment Report Beats Expectations

The biggest data point of the week came this morning in the form of the most recent employment report for January for the United States. Every US employment report is important, but Janaury’s is of particular importance simply due to the fact that it sets the tone for the year.

Prior to today, most market experts were anticipating that non-farm payrolls increased by 235,000 during January. When the data was made public, however, it was reported that almost 260,000 non-farm payrolls were added to the economy. This news instantly gave US stock markets a considerable boost while simultaneously put pressure on gold and silver. This is a major part of the reason behind why gold and silver will be ending the week having posted pretty hefty losses. Hopefully, with some luck, next week will see spot values bounce back because this is now the second consecutive week worth of losses.

In addition to all of this, it was also reported today that the European Central Bank was not willing to negotiate with Greece over debt payments. With Greece increasingly unable to pay debts and debtors demanding their money, something will have to give in the coming weeks. For Greece, however, the situation looks quite dire.

As of the writing of this post early Friday morning, precious metals are conceding some value. All in all, however, this week has been extremely beneficial for precious metals and even saw spot values surpass some key points of technical resistance. Though the market is currently bullish on gold and silver, it will be interesting to see how metals fare as the next few weeks play out. Currently, gold is sitting above the $1,300/ounce threshold while silver is comfortably above $18.

To be quite honest, investors this week had little to focus on apart from the European Central Bank meeting. With a big announcement expected to be made by the ECB, it is no wonder that investors were mostly preoccupied this week. In other news, the governments of Japan and China both released reports regarding their economy this week. Both countries said that the continued decline of crude oil will help spur both economies along. This is extremely good news for a region of the world that has not had the best last 12 months from economic and financial perspectives.

ECB Introduces QE Plans

Perhaps the worst kept secret of the year will go to the “secrecy” surrounding this week’s European Central Bank meeting. Seeing as the EU has struggled economically for the better part of the last year or more, it was no secret that they were in need of some economic help. Because of these struggles, it was eventually believed that the ECB was going to soon introduce a monetary plan that very closely resembled the quantitative easing policies that played out in the United States.

Up until last week, however, any talk regarding QE in Europe was nothing more than speculation. Thankfully, a ruling last week by the European Court of Justice made it legal for the ECB to pursue QE plans, and that is exactly what they announced at their meeting yesterday.

Officially, the EU will not see QE put into effect until early 2016, but the impact of the decision is already playing out. Thanks to this particular plan involving the purchase of 60 billion euros worth of bonds every month, the Euro has suffered a fairly decent hit. For precious metals, yesterday’s announcement has so far resulted in gains, but it will be interesting to see if those gains can be retained as we head further into the New Year. Still, no one is scoffing at the fact that both gold and silver are hovering near 6-month highs and are quite honestly looking like edging higher. Next week will be the first actually slow weeks of the year, so no one is quite sure what to expect from a precious metals price action standpoint.

Though minor losses are being posted as of the writing of this post, precious metals are still going to be looking at fairly healthy weekly gains. In fact, the first two weeks of 2015 have been extremely beneficial for precious metals and, in all honesty, it seems as though the market’s outlook on precious metals is changing. Now, gold and silver have the near-term technical advantage and are seeing an increasing number of investors become more bullish on the prospect of investing in metals.

All in all, this week was once again full of economic data from all over the world. With that said, however, most of the market’s attention was directed at data from Europe as it is widely expected that we will see a policy shift come as a result of next week’s European Central Bank meeting. In addition to this, investors were also dealt a fair batch of economic data from the United States, but this did not affect the market nearly as much as the data from Europe.

Swiss National Bank Makes Surprise Move

The biggest news story of the week came on Thursday in the form of a surprise decision on the part of the Swiss National Bank. According to most European news outlets, the SNB decided that it would immediately move to unpeg the Franc from the Euro. With the Euro in free-fall for the past few months and only looking like it will get weaker, it really isn’t too shocking that the SNB made this move.

For those who are unaware, the Swiss National Bank initially decided to peg the Franc with the Euro back in 2011 in an effort to prevent the currency from gaining too much value too quickly. Now, with the Euro still on the decline, it will be interesting to see if any other countries whose currencies are pegged with the Euro will make a move similar to the SNB’s.

In other news from Europe, it was reported on Wednesday that the European Court of Justice ruled that the European Central Bank’s plans to implement quantitative easing measures was legal. Though the market was already more or less convinced that quantitative easing measures were just around the corner for the EU, this report confirms, for many, that the ECB, at their meeting next week, will decide to announce the implementation of QE. Though this is not a definite, this week’s ECJ ruling has many people thinking that next week’s meeting is the perfect time to announce this big shift in policy.

Retail Sales in US Mostly Disappoint

Despite the fact that most of this week saw the market focus entirely on economic data and happenings from Europe, the attention of investors was drawn, briefly, to the latest retail sales data from the United States. December’s retail sales are historically some of the year’s best simply because of all the Christmas shopping that gets done during the month. This time around, however, investors had a retail sales decline of .9% to chew on. Compared to expectations of a .2% rise in retail sales, it is clear to see that these figures were quite disappointing.

This news did the Dollar and equities no favors, but helped the precious metals market considerably. Helping gold and silver even more is the fact that experts are now convinced that the Fed will hold off on raising interest rates for some time now. As we look ahead to next week, it will be interesting to see what the European Central Bank meeting has in store for investors.

Precious metals have had an eventful week so far, but are beginning Friday losing value. This whole week has brought about plenty of information regarding global economies and the monetary policies that govern them, but we are not quite through with this week’s allotment of data. Today, the market will be dealt the latest employment report from the United States and, after last month’s report fell far short of expectations, you can bet that this one will be dealt a lot of scrutiny from investors.

In addition to all the economic reports and activity, investors are continuing to keep a close eye on the price action of crude oil. After recovering a bit to begin the week, oil has since been on the decline and is continuing to hover near multi-year lows. While these low oil prices are great for customers at the pump, they are not so good for raw commodities, including gold and silver. You see, the fact that crude oil has trended downward for the better part of the last month or so has meant that all commodities, especially gold and silver, are being weighed down. With the outlook on oil growing bleaker by the day, it is likely that this asset will continue to pressure metals.

Market Looks Ahead to Employment Data

Apart from this week’s European Central Bank meeting, the next big focal point for the market will be the release of today’s US employment data for November. The monthly jobs data has long been one of the primary ways by which investors gauge the strength of the US economy, and for good reason too. After all, the US economy is largely service-based, which means that the more people we have working, the more highly functional the economy is.

After last month’s October employment report fell short of expectations, some people are expecting this week’s report to do the same. In case you do not remember, last month’s employment report showed that far fewer jobs than expected were added to the US economy during October. Compared to expectations for 230,000 new jobs to have been added to the economy, the actual figures showed only about 208,000 new jobs.

Well, this month the expected tally of job additions has not changed and remains at right around 230,000. If today’s data is far off from what is currently expected, you can bet that it will have a noticeable impact on the marketplace and likely deliver gold and silver a slight boost. For now, however, metals are continuing to lose value ahead of the job report’s release.

Gold and silver spot values, for a third consecutive Friday, are making nice gains as of the writing of this post early Friday morning. The gains being made by metals are being attributed to a policy change being reported out of China, so it will be interesting to see if these gains can be retained or not.

This week, much like the last few, was generally quiet and mostly devoid of any markets-moving economic activity. While normally, this type of quiet market acts as a weight on precious metals, both gold and silver are in position to end the day and week having made some decent gains. Despite the week, as a whole, not bringing about much economic data, Thursday did play host to quite a few reports that grabbed the attention of global investors and took their toll on global markets. From the US especially, the batch of economic data was welcomed by all investors.

US Economic Data More Upbeat Than Anything Else

Only about two weeks ago, investors in the US and around the world were dealt some rather poor US employment data from the month of October. Since this unexpectedly poor report, investors from around the world have not really been given all that much US economic data. That all changed yesterday upon the release of a few key reports from the month of October.

Generally, yesterday’s US economic data was on the positive side of things and ended up giving stocks a modest boost. Unfortunately for precious metals, the upbeat nature of yesterday’s reports ended up turning what was looking like a day of gains into yet another losing day.

One of the most upbeat aspects of yesterday’s US economic data was a report claiming that US factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region is at its highest level in more than 20 years. In addition to this, there was another report that showed existing home sales during October being superior to existing home sales recorded at any other point during the last year. This news, as any upbeat economic news from the US does as of late, has investors under the impression that perhaps interest rate discussions held by the Fed may be more urgent than they have been in recent weeks.

Another big news story that is just beginning to be digested by the marketplace is the surprising move by China’s central bank to slash interest rates. As is the case whenever interest rates in a prominent economy are slashed, gold and silver responded by making gains and adding value this morning. It will be interesting to see, as we head into next week, what kind of lasting impact, if any, the Chinese central bank’s decision will have on spot values as well as the general global marketplace.